Canopy Roads of South Georgia

Protracted extreme drought: U.S. Drought Monitor, 2012-05-08

Acording to U.S. Drought Monitor, drought throughout south Georgia and surrounding areas is either extreme or exceptional, and has been for months.

Here you can see detail for Georgia:

Groundwater at historically low levels

The only well in the Withlacoochee, Little, or Alapaha River watersheds that seems to be instrumented for near-realtime depth measurements is in Valdosta. That well is now at historic lows, compared to 55 years of back data.

On the graph to the right, the black triangle in the middle of the green is the median over those 55 years since 1957. The green is 25th to 75th percentile. The yellow is 10th to 24th percentile. The red is below 10th percentile. I'm guessing below the red means never been seen that low before in that month.

The current depth shown, 137.52 feet below the surface on 26 April 2012, is not the lowest ever seen, which was 152.31 feet on 19 September 1990. But apparently it is lower than seen before for April.

Maybe we should think about water conservation more frequently than just when Valdosta's water pumps have problems. Not just for watering lawns; also for agriculture and silviculture. Maybe we should try to plant crops that don't require as much irrigation, or plant them in ways that don't lead to so much evaporation. Maybe we should be more careful about clearcutting trees, which causes rapid runoff that doesn't get back into the groundwater as much. Maybe we should think about how much growth do we want.

-jsq

Planted Longleaf, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012

These are the same longleaf planted in 2008, blogged 10 October 2010, burned a second time 16 December 2011, and greening and candling again February 2012.

Pictures of Gretchen Quarterman with the planted longleaf (Pinus palustris)
by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 April 2012.

Almost all of them survived the prescribed burn, and many of them are quite tall. The planted little bluestem and big bluestem are also thriving, along with native verbena, and some less savory invasive exotics, including trash along the road. Plus Gretchen's favorite: dog fennel! And along the fence row cedars, pecans, plums, grapes, wild cherry, and a gopher tortoise. Here's a flickr slideshow:

Longleaf candling at the pond, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 April 2012

We didn't know there were any longleaf at the bottom of the pond, but the white candles are unmistakable:

Pictures of Longleaf pine (Pinus Palustris) by Gretchen Quarterman
for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 April 2012.

The needles are also longer than on the nearby slash pines:

Drying Out South Georgia Wetlands in Dirty Dozen by Georgia Water Coalition

We're on Georgia Water Coalition's Dirty Dozen 2011: as 9. South Georgia Wetlands: Four Decades of Ditches Dry Out South Georgia Wetlands:

Since the 1970s, state and federal regulatory agencies have allowed the destruction of more than 200,000 acres of highly critical wetlands throughout South Georgia to increase timber production and agricultural yields and usher in residential and commercial development. These wetlands that captured water and slowly released it to streams no longer perform that important function. The result has been increased floods when it rains and record low flows when it doesn't....

Flooding? Like the 700 year flood in Lowndes County 3 years ago today?

What's a wetland, anyway?

the greatest concentration of wetlands is in the Coastal Plain of South Georgia. Though these forested foodplains and wetlands may not seem directly linked to our rivers and streams, they play an important role in holding water during rain events and dispensing it during dry periods. The sponges and kidneys of our state, they mitigate major floods, lessen the impacts of drought, and clean the water that passes through them, while regulating the amount of freshwater entering Georgia’s coastal estuaries where commercially important seafood find critical habitat. Additionally, these wetlands provide important habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.

So what's the problem?

In an effort to convert these wild lands into

Old Road

This is a road, at least a hundred years old, after a prescribed burn:

John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman,
Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 March 2012.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman

Those are mostly slash pines (Pinus elliottii), with one or two longleaf and some oaks.

-jsq

 

 

Greening and candling burned longleaf

Back in December we burned some planted longleaf. Six weeks later, they're greening up and candling. I couldn't find a single longleaf that didn't survive. Even ones that a few weeks ago you would have thought were burnt sticks now have green leaves or white candles or both.

Here's a slideshow.

Longleaf greening after fire, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman 29 February 2012.

-jsq

Burning some piney woods 2012 01 31

Why to burn more frequently: vines grow up trees and form ladder fuels

Prescribed burn of some piney woods at Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman, 31 January 2012.

Fortunately these vines were mostly in invasive exotics anyway (chinaberry, mimosa, Japanese privet) that had grown up along the field edge. After a few minutes, here's the result.

Most of the rest of the woods burned much more evenly, with flames only a foot or two above the ground.

A flickr slideshow:

Longleaf sprouts

Found in the gutter:

Picture of Gretchen Quarterman holding longleaf sprouts at Okra Paradise Farms
by John S. Quarterman, 19 December 2011.

I found them in the gutter while cleaning oak leaves out of it. Longleaf seeds had sprouted in that wet place. Gretchen stuck them in some dirt in these seedling containers. In a week or so we'll need to transplant them into something bigger. Their taproots are already almost as deep as these boxes.

We're also finding quite a few fresh longleaf sprouts in the ground, so apparently we got a pretty good seedfall this year.

-jsq

Burning planted longleaf, 16 December 2011

We planted these longleaf three years ago, in 31 January 2009: 12,000 trees we dibbled in by hand. Not even three years old and some of them are 12 feet tall! Every few years they need burning to reduce the weeds like dog fennel and to encourage the native warm season grasses (NWSG). The NWSG burn well: low to the ground, moving right along. The dog fennel not so much, but they do sometimes flare up and make a good show, like this:

Burning planted longleaf, Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 16 December 2011.

The longleaf themselves are the most fire-resistant of trees. Almost all of these longleaf will survive the fire and thrive. The volunteer loblolly and slash, not so much, and any oaks or other trees even less, so fire favors the longleaf. We had perfect burning conditions: 5-8 MPH wind from the northwest, blowing towards the road.

Some of the subdivision neighbors who are not familiar with prescribed burns called the county fire department. They came out, took one look at the firebreak, and filed a report saying all was OK.

Here's how the fire got started. Some pyromaniac dribbling fire....

Here's a slideshow and a playlist of some videos.